The first Dynasty Warriors trailer came out way back in 2018, promising a faithful movie adaptation of Koei Tecmo’s famous hack n’ slash fighting franchise. Then COVID happened and everything got put on hold. Now that vaccines are rolling out and the virus seems to have subsided (in China, at least), HMV Digital China Group LTD has decided the time is right for Dynasty Warriors to make its debut.
Hong Kong will get its first screenings of Dynasty Warriors on April 29. In the meantime, they’ve put out a brand new trailer to showcase the utter lunacy that moviegoers will have in store for them.
In case you're new to the Dynasty Warriors franchise, picture a regular hack n' slash action RPG, only instead of maybe stabbing a single enemy, each stroke of your sword sends dozens of enemy soldiers flying into the air. Every game takes place during China's Three Kingdoms period and tells the story of a number of different characters from their perspectives.
Although the characters are all named after real historical figures, their ability to summon lightning to explode entire enemy platoons is not.
Dynasty Warriors seems like a game franchise tailor-made for the Chinese market. It imagines historical figures as larger-than-life, godlike beings of immense power able to shape the world with a swipe of their oversized weapon. And it also portrays Chinese history in a positive light, even though the Three Kingdoms period was a time of brutal warfare where millions of people died.
Koei Tecmo is also involved in the movie's production, so you know it'll at least stay true to the source material. Dynasty Warriors will star Louis Koo as the evil Lu Bu, along with Tony Yang as Liu Bei, Geng Han as Guan Yu, and Justin Cheung and Zhang Fei.
There’s no English translation nor a worldwide release set, but here’s hoping.
And for those looking to get into a new Dynasty Warriors game, Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires has been indefinitely delayed. This seems to be a cautionary measure to prevent a similarly disastrous launch as the main-series Dynasty Warriors 9. Expect an update from Koei Tecmo later this year.